Two of the largest insurers in the pension risk transfer market, MetLife and Prudential, have issued new reports on sponsors’ mounting interest in moving pension liabilities from their books.
MetLife’s Pension Risk Transfer Poll, a new survey of about 230 defined benefit plan sponsors, found that 45 percent of large plan sponsors have taken proactive steps toward an eventual pension risk transfer.
Of those sponsors that report being most likely to take de-risking measures, almost three-quarters have taken preparatory steps, according to the survey.
About half of the sponsors surveyed said increases in premiums to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. was the top catalyst for transferring pension risk.
Today, PBGC published premium increases for plans in its single-employer insurance program for years beginning in 2016.
The per-participant flat premium rate will be $64, up from $57 in 2015. Next year’s increases were mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013; Congress, not PBGC, sets sponsors’ premium rates, though some have said shifting that power to the agency should be explored, not the least of whom is new PBGC director Thomas Reeder.
For context, the flat-rate premium was $49 in 2014, $35 in 2011, and $33 in 2008.
In the MetLife poll, 45 percent of sponsors said new mortality tables issued by the Society of Actuaries was the lead catalyst motivating de-risking plans.
The SOA recently adjusted the projections it released last October, giving sponsors a slight reprieve from previous estimates of the cost of improving mortality.
And 34 percent of sponsors told MetLife their as their plans reached a predetermined funding status, they have given greater consideration to de-risking.
New research from Prudential Retirement, the unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. that oversees pension de-risking deals in the U.S., shows that over $260 billion pension liabilities has been transferred globally since 2007.
In the U.S., there have been $67 billion of pension risk transfer transactions since 2007, according to a new white paper on the global market from Prudential.
Nearly $180 billion in transactions have been completed in the U.K., and more than $16 billion in activity has taken place in Canada since 2007.
The paper says that as leading global companies de-risk pension assets, they gain a competitive advantage over those that don’t.
That reality is forcing more sponsors to consider de-risking pension liabilities. Successfully de-risking pension plans can free up cash for investments in a sponsor’s core business.
In the U.S., sales of pension buyouts totaled $3.8 billion in the second quarter of 2015, a record for that period, according to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.
All told, there were 62 buyout deals last quarter.
Record second quarter sales is notable because the sales cycle for pension buyouts tends to be seasonal, with most activity occurring in the fourth quarter, according to LIMRA.
Last year, pension buyouts yielded insurers $8.5 billion in revenue.
A spokesperson from LIMRA explained that the trade group does not get access to specific insurers’ total revenue from pension de-risking deals.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
